Steve Beauharnais (right) will not play in Sunday’s AFC Championship game.

By Michael Whitmer
Globe Staff
January 17, 2014

FOXBOROUGH — Linebacker Steve Beauharnais has been ruled out of Sunday’s AFC Championship game by the Patriots, after he missed Friday’s practice with an illness.

Beauharnais hasn’t been a big contributor for the Patriots, playing in just four of their first 17 games. If he was dealing with the same medical issue that forced Tom Brady and Danny Aiken to miss Wednesday’s practice — especially with the team taking a four-hour flight to Denver Friday — and the chance of Beauharnais playing against the Broncos was slim to begin with, better to just keep him home, so others won’t catch it.